EDITORIAL: A bright spot for Democrats

Tuesday’s results were a disaster for Democrats. But Nevada proved an outlier to the national trends.

At the onset of Election Day, national Democrats were not only confident of holding the White House, they were anticipating a potential majority in the U.S. Senate. Neither came to pass. It may be years before the party has another realistic chance to take back the upper chamber.

But Democrats fared much better in the Silver State. Hillary Clinton edged Donald Trump by a couple percentage points. In addition, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s hand-picked successor, Catherine Cortez Masto, held the seat for her party, while Democrats Ruben Kihuen and Jackie Rosen each won a U.S. House seat previously in GOP hands.

Of greatest significance, Nevada Republicans were pancaked at the legislative level — which will have major ramifications for next year’s biennial session in Carson City.

The GOP went into the election with an 11-10 edge in the state Senate and a 25-17 majority in the Assembly, thanks to big gains in the 2014 campaign. But Democrats reversed that advantage, and then some. The party picked up 10 seats in the Assembly and flipped a GOP Senate seat to take an 11-10 majority.

“It’s a very tough defeat,” said Michael McDonald, the former Las Vegas city councilman who now chairs the state Republican Party. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.”

The Republicans lost with some very good candidates battling demographic and voter registration trends that favored their opponents. Incumbent freshmen GOP Assembly members Derek Armstrong, David Gardner, Stephen Silberkraus all went down, as did newcomer Nick Phillips who was seeking an open seat.

All four men should consider running again in the near future.

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval now faces a 2017 legislative session driven by a Democratic agenda. One of his major challenges will be salvaging the GOP-backed school choice plan lawmakers approved in 2014 but which was held up by court challenges until September.

The governor opted not to ask lawmakers to fund the program during an October special session when Republicans still controlled both houses, meaning its fate now rests in the hands of the Legislature’s new Democratic leadership.

The thousands of parents eager to participate in the plan — which allows families to direct a portion of their child’s state per-pupil spending allocation toward private school tuition or other education expenses — would be wise to make it clear that they intend to hold accountable lawmakers who would deny them that opportunity.